I applied but I haven't heard back from them yet.It is one of my top choices, and I have heard only good stuff about the school -- definitely one of the best graduate school in the world, though frankly, I don't know much about their particle physics research, but I am sure it's at top level.

I applied to particle theory at U.Chicago as well. I contacted the department earlier this month and they said they were swamped with applications and won't be finished with the review and selection process until the end of February.

It sounds competitive. Gosh, I wish there are a great school but with not many applicants haha.

Is it true that most of the time, you need to have the combination of top GPA, good research experience and good letter of recommendation in order to get in those top private schools? Or it also depended on luck or ethnicity or gender?

I applied there for CME, haven't heard back yet. For top schools, GPA, good letters, good research, and good test schools are the typical combination you need. Publications and a good undergrad university are a definite plus.

physicshbar wrote:Is it true that most of the time, you need to have the combination of top GPA, good research experience and good letter of recommendation in order to get in those top private schools? Or it also depended on luck or ethnicity or gender?

physicshbar wrote:why is now so competitive to go to Physics grad school. I wish we were able to publish and study like the time of Einstein. Hahaha, he did not need to go to grad school to publish the great papers.

Going grad school is cool and fun but the things you have to go through to get there is a pain in the butt.

Nobody's gonna keep you from working in a patent office and writing papers on the side; if you're an Einstein, maybe that's a plausible career option. Everybody else has to go to grad school because 1) we still have plenty left to learn and 2) in order to pursue non-Einstein-type research*, you have to use the system.

*I'm defining Einsteinish research as the kind of paper that doesn't really require that you cite any sources -- gedanken experiments, completely new theory, etc.

physicshbar wrote:why is now so competitive to go to Physics grad school. I wish we were able to publish and study like the time of Einstein. Hahaha, he did not need to go to grad school to publish the great papers.

Going grad school is cool and fun but the things you have to go through to get there is a pain in the butt.

Nobody's gonna keep you from working in a patent office and writing papers on the side; if you're an Einstein, maybe that's a plausible career option. Everybody else has to go to grad school because 1) we still have plenty left to learn and 2) in order to pursue non-Einstein-type research*, you have to use the system.

*I'm defining Einsteinish research as the kind of paper that doesn't really require that you cite any sources -- gedanken experiments, completely new theory, etc.

I think I am an Einstein... I have proof. My girlfriend always tells me, "Knock it off, Einstein!... unhooking is not rocket science." I don't know whether it's a complement or not. Who cares? I am Einstein, I am going to solve the dark matter dark energy mystery.

Thank you bosem. That was the funniest thing I've heard all day! You win prizes becauseyou made me laugh amidst all this stress ... and out loud too!!!

Anyway, I just wanted to add that I heard that the University of Chicago has students onthe admissions committee. I got the impression they did a large portion of it, or maybe itwas just the first weed out. I thought that was bizarre (ok, how do you spell bizaar?),as I didn't hear about any other schools doing that. Did anyone else hear this aboutChicago?

About the Einstein things, it's hard to figure whether such a guy would be so successful in today's world. In Einstein's day, there wan't a whole lot one had to know in order to start coming up with new things. But today, it'd take a tremendous amount of reading just to get abreast of a tiny area of modern physics research, and the math itself would be an ordeal to learn. Maybe there are people brilliant enough to pick it up quickly, but it'd still take a lot more initiative than taking F=ma to the next level...

Ask professors who work in that subfield - they'll have a good idea of which programs are best. US News does some rankings by subfield, but I have no idea how good they are (or who they say is top for particle physics).

stardust wrote:Anyway, I just wanted to add that I heard that the University of Chicago has students onthe admissions committee. I got the impression they did a large portion of it, or maybe itwas just the first weed out. I thought that was bizarre (ok, how do you spell bizaar?),as I didn't hear about any other schools doing that. Did anyone else hear this aboutChicago?

I heard that too. I think I saw it on some webpage. However, I am sorry I have not yet heard from Chicago and am worried that I am probably getting rejected. I applied to UChicago becuase of their excellent cosmology program. If you are into theoretical cosmology, then I think: Caltech, UChicago, UCSC,UC Berkely are some of the nicest places.

I was about to tell you that they haven't started admitting people yet, but according to gradcafe there's one new acceptance and two new rejections. Time to start getting worried every time I check my mail box...

Berkeley and Chicago are excellent places to do string theory. they both offer strig theory course, but i personaly do not like the textbook they follow (String Theory and M-Theory - BBS). If you are willing to do Mirror Symmetry, Toric Geometry, Homoogical Algebra,Noncommutative geometry.. i recommend you to go Berkeley and work with Mina Aganagic. She is very young and already one of the leaders of the field. berkeley has also great names like Petr Horova ( he's also the lecturer of the String Theory course at Berkeley ), Ori Ganor ( especially if you are interested in Matric-Models, and Noncommutative geometry).Chicago is a better option if you are interested in String Theory Landscape, since they have Dr. Sethi ( he is also the lecturer of String Theory course ). David Kutasov could also be a great supervisor if you want to do strongly coupled field, BPS states in supersymmetric gauge theories...I don't know about Cornell, and i don't think COrnell is a good place to do String Theory.

stardust wrote:Thank you bosem. That was the funniest thing I've heard all day! You win prizes becauseyou made me laugh amidst all this stress ... and out loud too!!!

Anyway, I just wanted to add that I heard that the University of Chicago has students onthe admissions committee. I got the impression they did a large portion of it, or maybe itwas just the first weed out. I thought that was bizarre (ok, how do you spell bizaar?),as I didn't hear about any other schools doing that. Did anyone else hear this aboutChicago?

Columbia also has students in their committees, I know a couple of them.

As someone said above, Berkeley and Chicago are great places to do string theory. Cornell has Tye and McAllister, who both do what you could call string cosmology. But McAllister has also worked on other stuff and he explicitly states in his website that he is also interested in other sub areas. They are both really good.